Zac Prendergast to be cycling commissaire at Paris Paralympics

Zac Prendergast in action.

A Kāpiti man is set to be the first New Zealander to be a commissaire for cycling at the Paralympics.

Zac Prendergast, who recently bought Kāpiti Dry Cleaning and Laundry Services in Ihakara St with his wife Nikki, left for Paris on Sunday to be a commissaire for cycling, which for him will involve referring and scrutineering.

He will be infield and refereeing for track cycling and scrutineering for road cycling, where he will check that all bikes are legal.

This isn’t Prendergast’s first time scrutineering — he’s done it several times before, including at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics held in 2021.

He said scrutineering involved checking for lots of things, such as the compliance of equipment, monitoring compliance with the rules, maintaining safety during racing, resolving disputes and judging results. But the Paralympics means scrutineers have more things they need to look for.

Because cyclists will have various disabilities, there are adaptions on the bikes that need to be checked, such as handlebar extensions.

It will be busy — Prendergast said he would be checking more than 300 bikes a day— but he’s hoping he will have time for some sightseeing, which he wasn’t able to do when he was in Tokyo.

Prendergast started cycling as a child going to and from school, and that progressed into doing paper runs and, eventually, competitive cycling – although he took a hiatus from it when he was in the Army.

He started racing competitively when he lived in Canterbury, but said it wasn’t his calling.

Zac Prendergast inside his dry cleaners. Photo / Grace Odlum

“I realised I was not going to represent New Zealand as a cyclist.”

That’s when he took up scrutineering and being a commissaire.

There are lots of things Pendergast said he liked about cycling — such as the beautiful landscapes you see, the way you never know who is going to win, and the challenge of it.

“It’s probably the hardest sport I’ve ever done.”

He wanted to raise awareness of the people behind the scenes at big sporting events like the Olympics and the Paralympics because they don’t get paid and often lose money attending.

He said they also put in just as much time and effort to get there as the competitors.

“Athletes spend a lot of time and effort getting there, but I don’t think people realise how much officials do the same.”

Prendergast will be arriving back in New Zealand in early September.